Microsoft appears to be investing seemingly unlimited amounts of time, resources, blood, sweat and developer-shaped tears into Windows Phone 7 — and the momentum builds every month. Windows Phone 7 can not fail, as we know, Microsoft can not afford for that possibility to surface. The future is data, data is mobile and ergo mobile is the future — or something like that right?

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The exploding need for mobile app development

Demand for mobile apps is exploding. Computer Weekly looks at taking an agile approach to app development, finding apps to suit diverse needs, and using apps to drive customer engagement.

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If we accept the above statements, then it follows that Microsoft should have released Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools in a direct effort to try and “double the developer audience for Windows Phone 7,” as the company puts it.

The strategy behind this release, which actually happened back in November 2010, is designed to bring Visual Basic developers into the fold of the Windows Phone Marketplace and allow them to submit Silverlight applications.

What was recently “only” 3,000 apps and games in ‘Marketplace’ with 15,000 active developers is set, Microsoft hopes, to approximately double — although the company was not specific about a timeframe for this increase.

According to Microsoft’s official blogs, there is an “increasing appetite” among the developer community for access to the Windows Phone 7 platform — and currently, the company has received more than 500,000 downloads of its SDK.

Visual Basic group VP Jason Zander wrote on his own blog, “I’m often asked by Visual Basic developers when they’ll be able to submit their applications to the Marketplace. I’m excited to announce to say that day is now here with the release of ‘Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools – RTW’. This release is available in the same five languages as the Windows Phone Developer Tools.”

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Happy New Year to all readers of CWDN, including the author.This is ultimately good news for WM7 and for VB.NET folks. However, I think Microsoft need to be careful here as quantity does not necessarily mean quality.From my brief encounters with the android marketplace there are many applications that are of various levels of quality and usefulness. WM7 to me is a slicker platform than Android, and I have my fire extinguishers ready for the anti-MS brigade who are now choking on the remnants of the christmas party food.WM7 does not need quantity, MS have made sure that the devices have just the hardware necessary for communications, but the onus has been put on your life being more important than the contents of your phone. This of course does not apply to iPhone users who would happily trade their lives to become some kind of Lawnmower man to go and live inside their iPhone.WM7 does not seem to be getting bad press, but there again it does not seem to be getting any press at all. Maybe I am just out of the loop.I really have high hopes for WM7, I also hope that at some point the devices will become a professional platform where applications go beyond the social framework fabric of what seem to be currently available.